Daily Times

It is a sunny afternoon in Karachi as I see my two five-year-old cousins coming out of the school building. I rush to greet them and help them with their bags; they immediately start to tell me about their day “Miss Saira gave me a star today” Fawzan proudly held up his star-studded hand for me to examine. “Only a star? I got chocolate from her” informed Shaheer, even prouder. Throughout the drive back home, I was filled in with details of their day at school, which unsurprisingly involved a lot of appreciative conversation regarding their class teachers. I realized how Impactful teachers are in one’s life.

A teacher is society’s most noble asset. She is responsible for early personality development and shaping a child’s character. A child spends a good chunk of his day under supervision by teachers and they have a huge role in molding his personality and helping him discover himself. From age three to age 18, a child is subject to a school’s environment which ideally trains him to find a career that is destined for him. During this journey, if he encounters a bad teacher, it is likely to negatively impact his life leading to society’s most taboo- anxiety and depression.

Like all, despite being schooled by what is called best in the city, I have been an eyewitness and sometimes victim of these bad teacher experiences. Experiencing cases such as being told to tolerate outrageous and impatient behavior from teachers by the supervisor just because we were girls and might find all kinds of In-Laws?! Another time, a class fellow was told off by teachers because of bad hair hygiene and was forced to cover her head and sit all by herself. Imagine her shattering confidence only at the tender age of 11. How difficult is it to write a note to parents so they can be informed about these issues so they better tackle the situation their way, Instead of humiliating a child in front of an entire audience. Other than that, if they don’t perform well academically, they are ridiculed and not given much attention than those who achieve good grades. Teachers are known to favor their favorite students in class and the rest are neglected and sometimes ridiculed. Cases have been reported when students are degraded if their parents are late depositing school fees, schools put up a list of these students on the school gate so they can’t enter the building the next day. What these ten-year-olds are going through we can’t even imagine. We have given the task of nation-building in the hands of immature, tired, economically challenged individuals who opt for teaching to earn bread and butter.

Pakistan has unfortunately been a developing country for a very long time now and like all other sectors, due to “more pressing issues”, authorities have largely ignored education the same. 22.8 million Pakistani children are out of school placing us only before Nigeria with the latter having the lowest literacy rate in the whole world. But what about the ones enrolled in schools? Are we providing them with the training required for the modern world they will step into? Do we have the faculty that guarantees learners with a hopeful future? In this country, anybody can be a teacher! There is no authority to perform background checks with these employees, who come from diverse backgrounds with blurred social morals and a goal to only earn a living, not realizing the huge responsibility they are in charge of.

Taking only the private sector into consideration, who claim to provide the best quality education, we know conventional teaching methods are being used on learners as in this country there is no certification for becoming a professional teacher. The minimum qualification required for a teacher is having cleared metric only, not taking into consideration his/ her ability to conduct a class properly or if he knows how to tackle the age group of students he is dealing with. Here, teachers are trained to be strict so children can’t misbehave. Why the students misbehave is what nobody is really concerned about. A child’s psyche needs to be understood in order to train him to perform, not every student can be handled the same way.

A system needs to be devised, where aspirants should enroll in a teacher training course, which should provide them with comprehensive training including psychology and child management courses. After presenting proofs of minimum education qualifications they should then pass a standardized test which would certify them for professional teaching. Only then they should be hired by schools.